Improved railway-car brak



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MARTIN HE N-RY' RUMPF, OF PARIS, FRANCE. Letters Patent No. 83,321, dated October 20, 1868; patented in France, October 17 1867.

MROVED RAILWAY-CAR BRAKE.

The Schedule reflerred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

To all whom. it may concern,- Be it known that I, MARTIN HENRY RU'MPF, of Paris, in the Empire of France, have invented a new and improved Brake for Stopping the Rotation of any Wheels, and applicable to railway-trains; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and

exact description thereof, which will enable those skilled-in the art to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, whe rein-v Figures 1 and 2 represent side elevations of railroadcars with my improvements attached.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

ticulations, and provided with either one or more blocks.

The principle of my system lies in the blocks being arrranged, in their dropping against the circumference of the wheels, to describe an arc of a circle, which intersects, more or less obliquely, the said circumference, so as to produce of themselves the blockage by means of the rotation of the wheels.

In order to makemy invention better understood, I

have, in the accompanying drawing, represented, in fig.

1, a railway-car provided with the simple lever-brake. This lever consists of a plain iron bar, a, fastened by one end to any point, which may be taken either within or without the circumference of the wheel, and

upon which point it pivots, so as to be either raised or lowered, at will, and at the other end provided with a block, b, intended to fall against the circumference of the wheel at a point where it is to produce the tightening upon the wheel, when the latter is in rotary mo- This simple or plain lever may be double or prong'ed,

and. embrace each side of the wheel.

' Each wheel maybe provided withtwo such levers,

one at the head and the other at the back, being to work alternately in a contrary direction, according to the direction of the run of the wagon; or one lever only may be used for each wheel.

The two levers on the same .pair may be arranged in an inverse direction to one another, and answer alternately the like purposes, in'case of a shifting in the direction of the run; 7

Figure 2 represents a wagon provided with the articulated lever-brake.

, This arrangement, which serves for twowheels on the same side, is composed,

My invention relates to improvements in a brake First, of an iron bar, 0, fastened, like the simple lever above mentioned, by its upper end to any point upon which it pivots.

Secondly, of another iron bar, d, suspended upon the lower part of the former, so as to vibrate thereon.

This rocking-bar is provided with two blocks, 1), one at each end thereof, intended, like those of the singlelever brake, to drop, when needed, against the circumference of their respective wheels, and to work according to the same general principle.

This rocking-bar is, like the single lever, suspended, by the opposite end to its pivoting part, from a'trausmitting-bar by means of a chain, 0, connected to a roller;

The transmitting-bar j, which is a mere iron shat}; or bar, passing longitudinally beneath the wagon, and supported by bearings, in which it is free to turn or slide, serves to either raise or lower the brakes, at

It may be made either to turn or to slide, so that when it is desired to raise up the brakes, the suspending-chains may be wound round it, and remove the blocks fiom the circumference of the wheels. Thisis effected by means of a plain pawl-gear applied tofthe tender.

Whenit is desired to lower the brakes, the pawl isv .merely to be thrown back, and the brakes will fall instantaneously by their own weight.

When the transmission is effected by sliding, the bar is operated by being drawn toward the engine by means of a pawl-winch, likewise applied to the tender, and whereon is wound the chain connecting the transmission-bar with the brakes.

The suspending-chains which are secured to the iron shaft or bar follow its motion, and raise up the brakes,

which are supported in this condition by means of the pawl.

- To cause their fall, it merelysufiices to throw back the pawl, and the brakes will fall by their own weight.

In the operation'of the simple lever, the locking is complete and instantaneous, and the wheel ceases to rotate as soon as the block reaches the wheel, and it glides on the rails until the entire exhaustion of the impelling force.

In the working of the articulated lever, the following movements are produced:

As soon as the blocks have fallen, the fore wheel,

from the direction of its rotation, causes its block to follow the direction upwards, whilst the hind wheel, from its rotation, causes its block to take a downward direction, as'indicated by the arrows 3 3, so that the intermediate bar of the lever, butting or propping between the two blocks, exerts a double pressure, which. causes, from the principle of the arc intersecting the circumference, an instantaneous tightening, sufiicient to resist the motion strongly, but not so as to stop entirely the rotation of the wheels, which will go on turning 0 the complete stop.

This propping-bar is so long, as neither to fall in the horizontal position, nor consequently be carried along with the blocks by the rotation of the wheels.

('But, as the blocks are, of course, liableto wear out, and as they might, after a certain degree of wear, fall too low, when it is desirable to make them last to the end, still maintaining them at the same height on the wheels, the intermediate bar may be made of two pieces, connected end to end by a screw or lengthening-rack, by means of which will be regulated the length of the bar whenever required by the degree of wear of the blocks.

The strain of the articulated lever-brake may be either increased or diminished at will, and thus be proportioned to the car-load, by means of a movable weight, which is made to run on the intermediate bar, forward or backward, according as it is intended to either diminish or increase the force, which may thereby be carried so far as to stop the rotation of the wheels.

This weight might even be so arranged, as to bewithin the reach of the engine-man, and exert more or less strain, at the will of the latter.

To this end it wouldsufiice to suspend it by the chain of transmission above the intermediate lever-bar, and to dispose it in a series of two or three superposed weights strung chaplet-like ata few inches distance from one another, so that the engine-man, by allowing the transmission-shaft or slide partly to turn or slide, would let one, two, or three weights weigh on the brake, or, in other words, only the quantity thereof deemed requisite.

The brake-apparatus being disposed on one side of the car for the run in one direction, a similar apparatus will be inversely disposed on the other side of the same car, for the run in the opposite direction.

The two railway-cars, represented at figs. 1 and 2, are shown coupled, and provided with the slide-transmission, coupled likewise.

This transmitting-device is composed of a plain thin iron bar, terminating at each end by a chain catching the chain of the next transmission at an intermediate point h between the two cars.

But, as this chair. is to be ever stretched, and on the nearing of the cars to each other it would slacken, a little articulated apparatust'is fitted between each car, which apparatus consists of two pieces, each of them being adherent to its respective car, and free to pivot on its adhering point, and connected by its other end to the other piece by means of a movable bolt or other device,

upon which they both of them likewise pivot, so that when the cars are brought near to each other they will form an angle, the vertex of which, by weighing upon the chain, forces it to describe the same curve, and always maintain it in the same degree of tension.

The vertex of the angle is provided beneath it with a winch or roller, under which is free to glide the transmitting-chain, when the trainis under the action of the bufl'ers, and when, in this condition, it is desired to work the transmission.

The main coupling of the cars, called the stretcher, might, on being properly arranged, ad hoc, answer this purpose verywell.

The same cars, figs. 1 and 2, show, besides, at their opposite ends, the turning-transmission set in communication with its neighbor, first, by means of articulated pieces, k, united by a movable bolt, 1, secondly, by means of a fork, m, sliding within a nut pierced with holes at, corresponding to the prongs of the-fork, in the manner of a turnspit or jack, or by any other suitable device.

Each car being thus provided with its transmission, all those in the train are set in communication with one another, as the train is being formed, by either of the means afore proposed, or by others, and thus meet at the tender within the immediate reach of the engine-man.

I may, instead of connecting together the various cation with the buffers of their respective cars, and work them by the action of the bufi'ers independently of one another.

I may also, insteadof bringing my brake to bear upon the circumference of the wheels, bring it to bear upon any other part, or even upon the axle, &c., previously arranged for the purpose.

I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent The combination, with a brake suspended, as described, of a sliding or rotating shaft, or a chain for raising and lowering the brake, either the shaft or chain being operated by any suitable mechanism, substantially as herein set forth and shown.

M. H. RUMPF.

Witnesses:

DEMos, A. Gurou.

transmissions of a train, set each of them in communi- 

